by Schow, Ryan
Chapter Twenty-Six
The town’s remaining survivors arrived one by one at the main bug out location, many of them weary, forlorn, and some injured. There were less of them than anyone hoped. Most were either numb or crying. Boone was shell shocked, Clay speechless. Ryker was attending to the wounded, and Harper stood just outside the camp shaking. Felicity went to talk to her, but the woman was unreachable.
Then somehow, they all came around and managed to work in lockstep according to their emergency plans. They broke down the tents, put everything under the ground tarps, then took refuge in the covered lean-tos they’d spent a lot of time covering with the natural shrubbery.
A half an hour passed when they heard rustling in the brush. Several of them were ready with weapons. But then Cooper bound into camp, licking everyone, happy to be alive and around others.
Orbey wasn’t far behind.
“It’s just me,” she said, exhausted, her skin blotted with smoke. Harper went and hugged her tight. Looking around, she asked, “Where’s Connor? Stephani?”
“I don’t know,” Harper said.
“We need to find them.”
A moment later, Skylar, Stephani and Logan hobbled into camp, as well as a few more people. The reunion filled many of them with hope, but then Logan started looking around, frantic.
“Where are the kids?” he asked.
“Felicity is with them at the second bug out location,” Boone said, barely in his body anymore. He had Rowdy in his arms, but for a moment there, he’d forgotten he was even holding his son. “We need to stay down and pray they roll through without finding us.”
The helicopter swept the countryside once more, and the sounds of bombing and gunfire down in the town persisted. By nightfall, they heard the last of the convoy roll through. More things were set on fire, blown up, blown apart.
By the next day, they were gone, as was the entire town.
When the survivors walked the interstate the next morning, they found hundreds of their own people dead, and scores of the SAA dead, as well.
Then they found Otto, Connor, Noah.
Skylar broke down and for the first time in as long as she could remember, she fell to fits of grief. Orbey found her, and then she saw Connor and fainted. Skylar caught her, cradled her on her lap before him and cried.
When she regained consciousness, the two woman sat before the man they loved so much. They cried until Stephani and Cooper found them and went numb. Cooper went to Connor, sniffing and whining, his tail moving as he licked him, tried to nuzzle into him. The dog looked back, not sure what was happening. Whining again, he tried licking Connor’s face. When he got no response, Cooper sat down beside him, wiggling himself into the crook of his arm.
Stephani was so numb she could only turn and wander away on weak legs. Skylar later found her under a Jeep, shivering, crying, her eyes vacant. The woman’s face was a map of abuse, and she survived that, Skylar thought. But this? She wasn’t sure her cousin would survive this.
Ryker, Boone and Clay said they would bury the bodies and hold a memorial after they assessed the rest of the damage. Felicity was still in shock, Rowdy with her now, and crying.
As they stood before a town thoroughly destroyed, their numbers thinned, their losses steep, Skylar said, “We need to leave.”
“Our house is gone,” Orbey said, dazed but holding tight to Skylar, to Stephani. “The barn, too. We have nothing. And with Connor gone…”
Logan was not like the rest of them. He was one hundred percent pissed. He was cut, beaten, shot and pissed the hell off.
“This was our home,” he growled. “Your home!” He glanced around at all of them, wicked eyes landing on Clay. “But now it’s not and I swear to God, I’m tired of the fight coming to us. It’s about time we take the fight to them!”
Everyone looked at him like he was crazy.
“Do you not see what that’s gotten us?” Boone said, aghast.
“What are you thinking?” Orbey asked, wiping puffy, red eyes that looked like they hadn’t stopped crying in days.
“I’m saying these pricks took our home, so now we take theirs,” he snarled, his face contorted with hatred.
Harper’s expression changed, too. This was her taking the leash off the beast. “We take out the SAA, the Chicoms, and then we take Yale. Because Logan is right, they took our home, so now we take theirs.”
“All in favor say aye,” Clay said. The support was thunderous, but not unanimous. “And the nays?” Those who weren’t for this plan said nothing. “So it’s settled.”
In that moment, it was so quiet, any one of them could have heard a gnat burp.
“Good,” Skylar declared, the murderous rage in her like a nuclear bomb ready to detonate. “It’s high time we find these rats and choke them to death with their own guts.”
Orbey looked up at her, took her hand, and with both pain and resolve in her bloodshot eyes, she said, “Sooner is better than later.”
End of Book 4
The story concludes in Dark Days of the Purge (May, 2020)…
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Ryan.
p.s. Before you leave, scroll forward for a link to pre-order Dark Days of the Purge, and then to the end for a quick look at my other series (three more total, all complete!). Also, if you haven’t done so already, you can grab a FREE copy of The Last Light of Day, the kick ass 120+ page prequel to the Dark Days of the After series. Link and book description to follow.
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Dark Days of the Purge: A Look Ahead
The war to take back America has begun…
The Five Falls patriots lost nearly everything in the Chicom and SAA assaults, but they haven’t lost their will to live, their determination to take back America or the fighting spirit needed to do both. What they’re attempting next, however, will test their resolve, their strength and their unity, and though everyone might not survive, perhaps their once great country will...
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FREE Prequel: The Last Light Of Day
America is changing fast. Cities are becoming dangerous. Time to bug out…
Security Engineer, Logan Cahill, and the mysterious Skylar Madigan, are tormented by the notion that time is running out for America. As the nation spins perilously out of control and foreign forces make their foothold in the country known, Logan is tasked with investigating the mysterious Harper Whitaker, a programmer he believes to be working under false pretenses. Is she caught up in cyber espionage, or something darker? And how does Skylar fit in with this? Has she been using him to get to Harper?
Things are not as they seem, and the lid is about to blow off the whole city, maybe even the country. The question that plagues Logan is the question of when, and how. When does he bug out? How will he survive a total collapse of society? The good news is, Skylar has a plan and Harper just might be a part of it. Will they be able get off the grid before all hell breaks loose? The apocalypse is coming, which means the end is near…
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OTHER POST-APOCALYPTIC SERIES BY THIS AUTHOR
The Complete Last War Series
The Complete Age of the Embers Series
The Complete Swann Series (Urban Fantasy)
